Episode 1.
A black sail unfurled tightly on a speed vessel cutting through the sea. The pirate ship Black Wither, featuring a wooden statue of a beautiful sea goddess on its
bow, was in flight.
“Increase speed!”
“Captain! Any more is too dangerous. Besides, there are reefs up ahead….”
“Damn it, then what am I supposed to do! Do you not see those blasted lions with your own eyes?”
At the fingertip of Gullen, the captain of the Black Wither who was shouting at the top of his lungs, was a ship bearing a sail emblazoned with a glittering golden lion.
However, the ship soon split into several units, and over a dozen warships began to surround the pirate ship.
From the beginning, what had been chasing the Black Wither was not just a single ship, but a fleet.
“What are you doing! Immediately, start preparing to fire!”
At Gullen’s command, the pirates scrambled onto the deck and began to take up combat positions one by one.
But Gullen knew all too well. Of all people to be caught by, it had to be the Sepia Navy. If luck was truly bad enough for Elisa Shooter to be aboard that ship….
Gullen’s body shuddered at the mere hypothetical. The Black Wither, which he had sailed his entire life, would become mere shards of planks and sink into the sea under the Sepia Navy’s state-of-the-art naval guns. Not just the Black Wither, but his crew and Gullen’s own body as well.
“Damn it, where on earth did that cursed Sepia Navy start following us from!”
Was it because of the gold mined from Slovia Island? Or was it because they touched the merchant vessel traveling from Sepia to Estroa?
There were too many incidents to count.
At that moment, the sunlight that had been beating down intensely enough to blind the eyes vanished. A deep shadow fell over Gullen’s vision.
“Shall I tell you?”
Then, a high and slender woman’s voice was heard whispering above his head.
In an instant, goosebumps erupted on the back of Gullen’s neck.
There was not a single female crew member on the Black Wither. Gullen, who had lived on the sea his whole life, never allowed a woman on his ship. Not for a single moment. He was an old-fashioned, bigoted pirate captain who believed that if
a woman boarded a ship, the sea goddess would become enraged with jealousy and make the waters dangerous.
Gullen immediately aimed his gun toward the head where the voice originated.
However, before Gullen could pull the trigger, a deafening gunshot echoed through the bow. Gullen reflexively
clutched his head and ducked down.
With a rolling sound, something tumbled to Gullen’s feet. Gullen squinted his eyes to check the object at his feet.
The head of the goddess statue, which had been praying for the peace of the sea at the bow, was rolling on the deck, severed.
Gullen reflexively jerked his head up and looked up at the person who had cut down the figurehead.
Hair as red as a flame, providing a perfect contrast to the jade-colored sea unique to Celeway. And on her shoulder, a silver gun barrel was gleaming. The hot midday sun was shining down upon her.
The seawater brushing the tips of the woman’s feet as she slid down the mast rope created white foam and sparkled like pearls. She looked like a beautiful goddess blessing a man of the sea.
Gullen muttered involuntarily while looking at the red-haired woman.
“Elisa Shooter.”
However, his voice was thick with fear. She was not a goddess who prayed for calm waves and a fair wind.
She was the Admiral of the Sepia Navy, known as the Reaper of Celeway Pirates, Elisa Shooter.
“How, how on earth did you get here so fast…!”
The inside of the ship was already in a state of chaos. From the Sepia fleet, naval soldiers were pouring down in swarms, overpowering the pirates. Before Elisa Shooter’s navy, Gullen’s crew was utterly powerless.
Gullen stumbled backward. There was only one way for him to survive.
‘Let’s jump into the sea.’
The moment Gullen glanced at the sea, Elisa read his intention.
“Not so fast!”
Elisa aimed her gun from behind the running Gullen. With a bang, the bullet was accurately embedded in Gullen’s left leg.
Gullen failed to jump into the sea and slumped miserably onto the hull.
Elisa slowly approached the fallen Gullen. Her combat boots became squelchy with the blood flowing from Gullen’s leg where the bullet was embedded, but she did not care. She willingly leaned down in front of the trembling Gullen.
Her hair swayed and brushed against the cheek of the pathetic, terrified pirate captain. Elisa whispered very softly to the
captain who had failed to protect his own ship and his own crew.
In a voice as benevolent as the sea goddess he believed in.
“Now, it would be best for you to speak up obediently. Where are all the goods plundered from the merchant ship bound for Estroa?”
“I-if you release me here, if you only spare my life, then I will tell you…!”
“You still haven’t come to your senses. Gullen of the Black Wither. If you were truly a captain, you should have cared for the lives of your crew, who are tied up over there looking only at you. And you had better give up on the idea of starting over with the gold illegally mined from the Slovia Island gold mines starting now.”
“How did you even know that…!”
“It was too easy. By now, the Sepia fleet has probably arrived at the Lapan Islands.”
“T-this can’t be….”
On that day, Gullen came to a desperate realization. That as long as Elisa Shooter was alive, one must never touch a Sepia vessel.
However, it was already a far too late realization.
Less than three hours later, they were led onto the warship in a line, pierced by pitchforks. With all weapons confiscated and his hands tightly bound, Gullen, the captain of the Black Wither, shouted at the top of his lungs.
“To be caught by the navy…. This is a disgrace to the Celeway pirates. Just kill me instead.”
“That won’t do. Enoch, bring that here.”
“Yes, Admiral!”
Soon, a major called Enoch dropped a large sack onto the floor. From the weakly opened mouth of the bag, gold bars poured out with a clatter.
“How, how on earth did you….”
“The Keterpin Islands. It was far too predictable.”
Upon realizing that even the gold bars, his last hope, had been seized, Gullen’s face turned deathly dark.
“Enoch, fire.”
“Yes, Admiral.”
As Enoch fired a single pistol shot into the sky, the side of the fleet opened up and the gun ports emerged. A large cannonball struck the mast of the Black Wither.
“No! Stop! I said stop!”
However, Gullen’s scream was buried under the sound of the successive exploding shells. The fleet’s cannons created a blaze that swallowed the Black Wither in just three shots.
Gullen, who had once boasted great fame as the longest-surviving pirate of Celeway, could only stare blankly as his ship burned and sank to the bottom of the sea.
“Take them all to the fleet.”
At Elisa’s single command, the naval soldiers began to move in perfect order.
When only the blue sea remained, such that the pirate ship had completely sunk and not even a trace of sparks could be found, Elisa spoke.
“Let’s return to land.”
As soon as Elisa finished speaking, the cheers of the naval soldiers could be heard.
“Turn the bow toward land! We are finally going home!”
Elisa’s combat boots touched the ground. The sensation of solid land, rather than a vessel rocking and churning mercilessly in the waves, felt new again.
“How many months has it been since I stepped on land! I am so moved right now! If it hadn’t been for those damn Black Wither bastards, we would have stepped on land at least last month.”
Major Enoch, who had been following Elisa around like a puppy since the military academy, chattered incessantly.
However, Elisa’s eyes were fixed on a luxurious carriage near the port. The brow of Enoch, who was looking in the direction Elisa was watching, also crumpled intensely.
From inside the carriage glittering with gold, Deren, the first son of Duke Roserica, stepped out.
“Is it the Roserica young master again? What kind of fault is he trying to find this time….”
“Forget it. I win.”
“Do you think I don’t know that? Your temper, Admiral, is what I know best….”
“What did you just say?”
It was the moment Elisa reached out to grab the back of Enoch’s neck. An unpleasant black shadow loomed over her.
“What is this frivolous behavior? Elisa. Just how much must you tarnish the honor of Roserica before you come to your senses?”
“What brings you all the way here?”
Thus, the method Elisa chose was ignorance. Deren clicked his tongue, but spat out the main point immediately.
“Father is looking for you.”
As soon as she heard the word ‘Father,’ Elisa’s expression crumpled.
“A noble who cannot even manage their facial expressions to that degree. That is why you, until now—.”
“You seem to be mistaken about
something; I am an illegitimate child, not a noble. Didn’t you teach me that clearly since I was young?”
Elisa, raising her head straight to meet Deren’s eyes, spat out each word as if chewing them.
“Elisa, how dare you be so impolite…!”
Deren, who was about to raise his voice, suddenly shrugged his shoulders and looked around. He only then realized that Elisa’s naval soldiers, including Enoch, were all staring this way with their eyes wide open.
Deren growled at Elisa in a lowered voice.
“Stop talking and get in the carriage. No matter how lowly blood you were born with, you wouldn’t be stupid enough to defy Father’s command.”
Elisa could not hide a small laugh.
“Let’s head to Roserica Castle first. Eric, I’ll leave the finishing touches to you.”
“Yes, Admiral.”
Following Elisa’s command, the naval soldiers stepped back, but because they were still checking Deren with ominous eyes, he was forced to board the carriage with his pride thoroughly crushed.
The two boarded the carriage, and silence lingered inside for a while. It was fortunate for Elisa, who wanted to go quietly, but given Deren’s usual personality, he would have been more than likely to scream at her as soon as the carriage door closed, yet today was different.
And Elisa’s unfortunate guess did not miss the mark. As soon as the carriage left the military base, Deren shouted at Elisa as if he had nothing to fear anymore.
“Elisa Shooter! How dare you be so ungrateful to me, after I took in and raised an illegitimate thing like you, you show no gratitude and make me lose face?”
Of course. Deren, who was short-tempered yet timid, seemed to have been truly afraid of the naval soldiers who followed Elisa.
That damn illegitimate child, that damn status.
The words she had heard since birth were beyond disgusting; now they were simply tedious.
“To use a legitimate son like me to bring someone like you, Father must have gone senile. Your lowly mother of unknown origin was so weak she crawled into the sea herself—!”
Elisa, who had intended to ignore everything Deren said, finally pulled out the pistol from her waist and aimed it at him the moment he mentioned her mother.
With a click, the sound of the trigger rotating, a cold sensation touched his forehead. Deren instinctively stopped talking abruptly.
“W-what are you doing! Where on earth did that gun come from…! How dare you toward me, the legitimate heir of Roserica, put that gun down this instant!”
“Under Sepia military law, it is always possible for officers and above to possess a gun even when not on a battlefield. Do you know why?”
“…….”
“Because summary execution is possible.”
Of course, this was limited to criminals who committed serious crimes such as treason or leaking military secrets in urgent situations equivalent to war.
However, Deren, who was terrified just by the gun barrel looming before his eyes, did not know that fact and lacked the intelligence to think that far.
“You, you! Do you think you’ll be safe after doing this?”
The content of his speech was a threat, but Elisa only let out a scoff at his miserably trembling voice.
He was a pathetic man whose innate bloodline was everything. A person who would be nothing without the single name he luckily grabbed at birth—the legitimate heir of the Duke of Roserica.
Even while shaking with fear, he was repeatedly saying “How dare you,” as if he had to protect that pride of his until the very end.
“So, let’s just keep our mouths shut and go quietly. Understood?”
Whether he had the sense to realize that this was the last chance Elisa was giving him, Deren kept his mouth tightly shut after that.
Only then, having regained peace, Elisa leaned her head against the backrest.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
Hii! New chapters will be released daily for the next month. Enjoy🫶💓
